Summer Success Institute Registration is open! (August 19-20, 2011)

We are pleased to announce that our 9th Annual PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI) will be held, August 19-20, 2011 at the Sheraton Hotel in Columbia, Maryland. This year’s SSI is generously sponsored by PROMISE at the University of Maryland College Park through funding from the National Science Foundation. All meals, workshops, and a hotel stay are free for the first 150 registrants. In addition to workshops on global leadership, the imposter syndrome, and navigating politics, this year’s SSI will have an outdoor “Retreat” component, featuring Craig Imler and the Outward Bound/Terra Trax team who have served us so well at our annual winter PROMISE retreats for graduate students at Coolfont and Rocky Gap.

This year, as part of our new PROMISE Pathways Project, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are invited from all of the institutions in Maryland, and from Universidad Metropolitana, our partner in San Juan, Puerto Rico. All STEM and interested faculty also are invited to attend. Alumni are invited to share tips and participate in the Saturday discussion on “Challenges, Triumphs, and Victories.”

The PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI), an annual conference sponsored by PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) was founded in 2003 intending to bring together new/incoming graduate students and those grad students (both Master’s and Ph.D. level) who were continuing in their programs so that they could prepare for and embrace the upcoming academic year of graduate study. This tradition continues! The SSI provides a support system, particularly for graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds (African-American, Latino(a)/Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander heritage) in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. We also have workshops of interest to Postdoctoral Fellows. The SSI has been called “The Grad School Pep Rally” by students because of the motivational encouragement that is presented by other faculty and staff of color, alumni, and special guests.

PROMISE Sites

PROMISE Dissertation House
The Dissertation House project provides a series of retreats, workshops, and seminars that move students from the “All-but-Dissertation” stage to their planned goal, the Ph.D.!